Marriage Alliance
by phanzi
Summary: This is just a random story about how England and Portugal's alliance came along. EnglandxPortugal.


_1373_

It was the first time Rio had seen so much fog. She looked around. _So this is England_, she thought. The teenager paced around in her boots but she could barely see anything in this fog. She was certainly not used to the harsh weather. Her boss had brought her to England to sign a treaty with a country as she was the human personification of Portugal, she had to go. However, she did not understand why the signing of the treaty was so important and it had to be held on that day itself without any postponing. She had met Arthur Kirkland, the personification of England before as a child when she was still under the Roman Empire but her first impression wasn't so good, after hearing what he was like from her brother and his hooligan friends Francis and Gilbert. _Idiota_, she scolded herself for believing in what those dumbasses said. Maybe Arthur wasn't that bad after all. She would have to find out for herself.

As her boss led her into colossal palace, she was amazed at the interior of the palace. The floor and pillars were made out of polished marble. The windows were so large that the velvet curtains were longer that of a theater stage. The walls were adorned with paintings of past and present rulers of England. One of them attracted Rio which was a painting of Philippa of Lancaster, the daughter of John of Gaunt. Her boss, John l, saw her getting so engrossed into the painting.

"That's her." He whispered, trying not to make his voice echo in the palace.

"Who?"

"My future wife."

"W-wait, you mean…?"

"I'm sorry I did not tell you earlier, Rio. I thought you may not be able to accept it."

"Of course not!" Rio cried, causing her voice to echo so loudly that the glass chandeliers on the ceilings shook. "I'm but a teenager, how can you expect me to sign a _marriage alliance_ with some country I don't even know that well?"

"It will be beneficial to our country, Rio."

Rio sighed and nodded. "Well, I guess you're right."

_1373_

Rio sat across a table from Arthur Kirkland. He was looking at her but she was keeping her eyes away from him. _Where the hell are you, John? _She thought. It had been only five minutes since she entered the room to see only Arthur. Other than just the usual greetings, she did not speak a word to him. She thought looking away would keep his attention away from her but she was restless. From fidgeting on her seat to playing with her fountain pen and hair, she simply could not sit still. _Why is he looking at me? What does he want? I can't believe I'm marrying him…John, help me! _Rio's eyes moved to the grandfather clock in the corner of the room again. John, as well as Arthur's bosses, were ten minutes late and counting. _Damn it, John! When you get in here, I am so going to…_

"Why are you so nervous?" Arthur chuckled.

"I am not nervous! I just want to get this done and over with so I can go home to see my…" Rio gulped. She hated mentioning this. "…beloved brother."

"You're lying, you hate your brother."

"Wh-What do you know, anyway?" Rio pouted. She certainly did not forget the Battle of Aljubarrota where she fought against her brother. Was this treaty the result of it, just because the English stood with the Portuguese in that battle? Was it necessary to have a marriage alliance? Does Arthur Kirkland want this or has the same opinion as her?

"It's a bit adorable…the way you're so nervous," Arthur admitted, his face turning red. "N-not that I support this marriage alliance in any way!"

"You think so too?" Rio asked as she felt her face muscles pull to form a smile. "I guess we'll have to go through it now and sass our bosses later."

"How can we even _sass_ our bosses?"

"It was a joke."

_1890_

A phone call was made to Arthur Kirkland in the middle of the night. He turned his back to it, he was too tired and drunk to answer it. Its ringing seemed incessant so he had no choice but to sit up and answer the call. "Hello?" He said groggily.

"…It's me."

Arthur's energy was restored all of a sudden when he heard the familiar voice. "Rio, I wish you'd come home."

"How could you do this to me?" Rio asked, sounding like she was about to cry. She had a crumpled piece of paper in her right hand, which was the paper Arthur handed her that morning, forcing her to take off all her armies from her colonies. "You know how much I love Adrien and Sonia."

"I do, Rio. I don't give a fuck about the bloody railway. I just want you to come home."

Arthur heard a sniff from the other line. "What about your bosses?"

"My opinion still counts."

The other line was silent for merely ten seconds. This silence scared the hell out of Arthur. Was she going to hang up and leave him to hope for her to come home again? He had crossed the line that morning, going to the extent of yelling at his own wife and calling her overprotective and loving her colonies more than her own husband. It wouldn't be surprising if she hung up. The silence was shattered by Rio's sniffing and sobbing. Was she recalling what happened that morning? Rio was never that much of a crybaby. If it were another person doing something like that to her, she would have beaten them to a pulp and hung them above her fireplaces. But this person was Arthur. The British ultimatum was extremely humiliating and hurtful to her since the world knew what her relationship with Arthur was.

"Rio, I'm so sorry. Would you come home?"

Rio did not say anything. She wanted to forgive Arthur, but she didn't want to put him in a spot. He was nothing but a personification of the country England, his words did not carry as much weight as his bosses'. She would support the railway initially, if it weren't because she had to take her army off her beloved colonies Adrien and Sonia. After all, once she took her army off her colonies, they would be vulnerable to all the powers of the world. What if her brother came to know of it and put her in his house for another sixty years? She obviously did not forget Lars, a childhood friend who turned against her two hundred years ago in the Dutch-Portuguese War. It seemed that although the war ended, Lars wasn't so satisfied with his share of Rio's colonies. They all had their eyes on those two large parts of Africa. Rio put the phone back onto its receiver and went to sleep, one of her hands clutching her lower abdomen.

"What do you think I should do, Maria?" Rio asked her unborn baby girl.

At six years old, Maria was beautiful. She had oak brown silk hair and messy bangs, green eyes and thick eyebrows – just like her father. Her skin was the color of cream. Arthur could not believe he could produce such a lovely daughter. It wasn't just her looks. It was her adorable and curious personality which she inherited from her mother. She had laid out rose petals on her parents' bed, candles and wine on the nightstand.

"Maria, what is this for?" Arthur asked.

"It's your anniversary with Mama."

Arthur face-palmed. How could he forget? But how could a six-year-old know about creating a romantic ambience in a room, much less do it on her own? "Maria, have you been hanging around Francis the past few days?"

"No!" The girl answered directly and scampered away to her room.

Arthur panicked a little when he heard the large echo of the door. His wife was home. What was he going to do? Play along with his daughter's arrangement? Arthur quickly opened the bottle of wine and poured an equal amount in each of the glasses in front of him. By the time Rio reached their room, he was sitting on the bed, drinking the wine coolly. _Bloody hell, this is so unlike me. _He thought.

"Am I supposed to follow this?" Rio asked as she threw her bag in the corner of the room and threw herself onto the bed, messing the petals up.

Arthur frowned, put his glass of wine down and pinned his wife down on the bed. "You know, Maria put in a lot of effort arranging those petals."

"Heh, I knew you wouldn't do something as romantic as this. But you're as honest and innocent as always." Rio said, caressing his husband's cheek.

"Innocent shouldn't be a word to describe me."

"How so?"

"For ruining our daughter's arrangement, I won't be so gentle tonight."

"Surprise me."

Arthur leaned down and forced his lips on hers. The kiss was cruel, but passionate. His body covered hers as she wrapped her arms around him and deepened the kiss. Once he pulled back, he began kissing her neck and shoulder as he unbuttoned her shirt and she unbuttoned his. Once her shirt was off, he unclasped her bra and removed it. "You are so beautiful. I just feel so lucky to have a wife like you and a six-year-old daughter who could prepare something like this."

Rio gulped. "About that, I have been taking her to Francis's house recently."

"What?"

"It's for business purposes, and she kept bugging me to bring her. It seems that she really fancies her Uncle Francis, though you don't seem to be impressed by it."

"It's all your fault, dear. I guess I'm not going to spare you tonight at all."

"Are you serious?"

"You are going to make it up to Maria by giving her a sibling."


End file.
